SLEDGING accident victim Lisa Tattersall (pictured) has taken her first steps since breaking a bone in her spine -- but is under doctor's orders to sit down.

Lisa, 22, who lives off Grane Road, Haslingden, ended up in hospital on New Year's Eve after falling on December 30, 2000 at Holden Vale, Helmshore.

Emergency services and Rossendale Search and Rescue Team spent more than an hour fighting through arctic conditions to treat Lisa after the sledger and her brother Christopher, 10, fell off their sledge near Grane Reservoir.

She was taken to Fairfield General Hospital in Bury and was allowed home almost three weeks ago but within days she awoke to discover her leg had gone numb and ended up back in hospital again with a traumatised nerve in her leg.

Lisa returned home for a second time last week after a scan at Hope Hospital, Salford.

Despite still spending much of her time since leaving hospital lying on the sofa watching television, Lisa can now manage to sit down for about 10 minutes to eat her meals and is hoping she is well on the road to recovery.

And she has taken a few steps with the help of others although she has been advised not to walk until she is stronger.

Describing her return to hospital, Lisa said: "I woke up and my leg felt like it was cracking. I screamed and my mum came in and I told her there was something wrong.

"It continued until Friday. That scared me more than the fracture because at first they couldn't explain why it was numb and I thought it was something wrong with my spinal cord. They said the fracture is stable and the numbness in my leg was probably a traumatised nerve or bruised nerve."

"I thought my leg would take about six weeks to mend, but it looks like another two months before I'm okay again.

"I was taking painkillers to begin with and they were numbing the pain so I was doing too much without realising. I have accepted that I have to lie on the couch but it's boring. I have become a proper telly addict which is totally opposite to how I used to be., but I can sit down for meals for about ten minutes now which I couldn't do before."

Lisa, a final year visual art degree student at Bolton Institute, has been given an extension to complete her coursework, which she hopes to have done by June.

She said: "I was fortunate to have my birthday on one of the days while I was at home. My friends came round and I had a small glass of champagne, but I had to leave them half way through because I was tired.

"My friends keep saying I'm not missing out on anything, but I'm still planning to have my New Year's Eve celebrations when I'm recovered."